Feats - Improved!

[ro]

Impressive work! Let's dive in...

Thanks!

Actor

Interesting the addition of cantrips. It makes sense to me that in a fantasy world, spies etc might have picked up a few cantrips. First glance, I like the idea.

I thought so, too. Message and Friends are less common, as well, generally not powerful, but fit the "Spycraft" idea you had and add some more flavor. This might cause them to be used more, and more creatively.

Armor Master

I quite liked the possibility of adding Smiths' Tools here as a ribbon, but I know others felt that was giving too much. I can attest to characters moving between armor types in my campaign, so in time this feat could benefit a character in both modes.

Yeah, I think this is well balanced. The switch between Medium to Heavy isn't a major impact, and it works to say, "You are wearing armor, so you always have some benefit." A character can go back and forth depending on their needs. Thematically, they seem to work together. Keeping the +1 ASI also offsets any need for additional proficiencies.

Athlete

My only complaint is that the climbing buff doesn't do much for Thief, which is the archetype you'd otherwise expect to want this. Hence I switched to give the +10' speed benefit similar to Mobility. I didn't feel there was any issue with having two feats that did that. Resisting Exhaustion is a really great idea, I might steal it. My only concern is perhaps this feat is bit baroque. Imagine you cut the prone, climbing/swimming, and jump speed benefits, and just give a speed increase: tidies it up immensely.

Hm. I like the idea of an archer in the trees, which a climbing speed helps. And I do like keeping the +10 movement in Mobile, just because Mobile is a great feat and I want to leave it mostly untouched. You're right that this isn't as perfect for a rogue, but there are other feats that a rogue could appreciate, like Skulker, and having multiple good feats to pick over your career is cool. (Note that I said "good" feats. Multiple feats that are all needed for a simple concept is poor design, but if each feat is a solid option and yet choice is required, that is good game balance.)

Brawler

I'm not sure how the reaction plays out. They strike you, reaction to grab, you strike back with advantage... does this work with polearm? It might need to be within 5' and if they miss.

Note that you don't have advantage until you are already grappling. I like the miss idea. If you were made large, you might have a 10' reach, so we want to retain that. How about:

"When a creature within your reach that you are not grappling attacks you and misses, you may use your reaction to attempt to grapple the creature."

Crossbow Expert

Could need a rename I dislike the 2H ranged use with a shield. I guess we're thinking pavis, but that should come with a movement cost or something. Perhaps "If you don't move during your turn, you can..."

Not sure which is better. They're both fairly complex. I tend to think about three abilities is the most to stack on one feat.

My intent is to make this a Ranger feat. Rangers have shield proficiency, but frequently that use two-handed bows. Likewise, they have spellcasting to support their martial abilities: lots of these are verbal only, but it seems like it would be nice to boost them. They could of course pick Warcaster, but that seems off-theme.

I was trying to strengthen this feat in a different direction from the original. The new wording nerfs the close-range benefit to once per turn, so I added the option to run away as a bonus action: Archer caught in melee makes a distracting shot and runs for his life.

Similarly, the crossbow as a bonus action with +Dex to damage and Archery fighting style was nerfed. Now the +Dex would only come through the Two Weapon Fighting style, so you only get one or the other unless you multiclass or pick up another feat that lets you do that.

This blocks the SS/CEx combo, but then in weakens the base feat: adding in the the bonus to shield use and spellcasting seemed a nice benefit to make it up.

I also tried to remove/clarify with version 2 the need for a free hand for reloading weapons with the Ammunition property.

If the shield benefit is too much, what if it was limited to "Your shield hand is free for firing two handed ranged weapons and spellcasting. When you use this benefit, you lose 5 feet of movement from your next move."

On the rename: I agree. I kept it this way just for clarity and alphabetical consistency at the moment.

On limiting feats to three abilities: I agree with that, too, although there are several more lengthy PHB feats. Any recommendations for simplification will be gladly considered.

Defensive Duelist (includes Dual Wielder)

I like adding the DW abilities here. I dislike limiting the defense effect to finesse. Rapiers, rapiers, rapiers, rapiers, and oh golly I think I'll use a rapier. I was looking for one more ability to add into my Duelist feat. Maybe DW is it?

Yeah, adding the "light or finesse" benefit helps it a lot.

Dungeon Delver (includes Keen Mind and Observant)

I like the Keen Mind advantages going into this, as it makes sense that these bonuses connect with delving. Makes me want to rethink my version! Initially, I felt the Keen Mind stuff was more Spycraft... but maybe this is better.

I agree. It seems like Keen Mind fits with Dungeon Delver very well. Keen Mind on its own is pretty much pointless, but as a dungeon exploration feat, it works nicely. I thought similarly about Observant, and split its benefits over a few feats.

Elemental Adept

Hearks back to 3ed caster feats. You know... this is probably better than the RAW EA feat. I guess they didn't reprise them because of bounded accuracy, but this looks narrow enough to be okay.

Oh yes, it is definitely better than the RAW feat, which I felt was too narrow. This gives a +1 ASI. I saw no reason not to expand the damage type options, especially poison, even though they aren't strictly elemental, but I did leave force out of the list intentionally: if you do meet a Force Dragon, this feat won't help you!

Furthermore, the reroll mechanic had weird side effects like making spell choice matter based on what size dice it uses, which is a bit weird. Giving a straight +1 to whatever spell you are using seems easier and more generally applicable. But it is still only on a specific damage type. A full +2 ASI would give this benefit anyway, and more, so dropping down to +1 ASI, retaining this benefit, and dealing with resistance/immunity but for a single element seems balanced.


Great Weapon Master - v1

As you know, I like this.

I like it, too!

Great Weapon Master - v2

This feels a bit less exciting than the original. +4 for -15% might not work out... (original is +10 for -25%). What I'm saying is - don't forget the excitement value of the original.

It is less exciting, which is unfortunate, but it is a lot more balanced. This version stays balanced/beneficial for a fighter with four attacks, improving with more attacks with advantage. The once-per-turn version, on the other hand, gives a power boost that is much greater, but only to single attacks. I think that I prefer the once-per-turn version, too, as it applies to many more characters, but this second version is better if scaling with multiple attacks is the goal.

I have to get on with work, but will revert about other feats later. One last note

I look forward to your continued feedback!

True Strike and Blade Ward

Could be right-minded. For sure those cantrips are nearly worthless in their current form.

Absolutely. My implementation may need to be refined, but these cantrips do need some help. Even so, they did not fit well with my "Cantrip Master" feat, so I felt they needed separate treatment.

 

[ro]

You realize as written your dungeon delver effectively grants +10 to Passive Perception vs secret doors. (if you have advantage on a check its considered a +5 bonus for passive). This means with 0 perception bonus you'd be at 20 for secret doors. I realize as a DM you could do what painfully too many terrible DMs do and just black out the rules regarding passive perception and the entire podcast by the game dev around its use, but mechanically its probably better to just design to assume it still is in the game.

Let's see. How about this adjustment? "You have advantage on active Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to detect the presence of secret doors."

 

[clearstream]

It has Concentration in that it you can still lose concentration from being hit. But it wouldn't wipe out your Hunter's Mark or other substantial spell. I'm open to changing this, however.



This would be true whether or not it was before the action. The cantrip specifies that its benefit comes on the next turn, so it doesn't matter when during the turn it is cast.



The problem is, it isn't better than base ability. Attacking twice yourself has the same probability of hitting but double the damage output of casting True Strike, waiting a turn, and then attacking with advantage. As written, True Strike is usually a complete waste of a cantrip, and an action. At least with Help you can Help someone else who can have a more significant impact.

But there are edge cases, such as rogues. I don't care much about True Strike myself, but I was hoping to make it somewhat more useful than it is.

We could keep it as 1 action:
True Strike: Range of Sight, Concentration on True Strike does not prohibit other Concentration

Or we could limit it in another way:
True Strike: 1 bonus action, range of 5 feet

What do you think?

After my first post, I realised the same issue with True Strike - it can't become fiat Advantage! So that's what blocks it being a bonus action. I'm not sure how you fix that.

 

[ro]

I like that it's all in once place. Nice work!

Thanks! :-D

Couple of thoughts....

Actor

I would remove the ASI; With your enhancements, it's definitely a full feat.

Ok. I will definitely consider that!

Healer

Why give advantage for double prof, isn't the normal mechanic to double your bonus?

I actually originally had it double your proficiency bonus, but I changed it for two reasons. One reason is that some people think Expertise breaks Bounded Accuracy, and so I wanted ti to be more appealing to them. The most important reason, however, is the DC 15 Medicine check given later in the feat. Expertise in Medicine would make this check trivial, or it would have to be DC 20. But DC 20 is very difficult without Expertise. Keeping it at DC 15 is more accessible, but giving advantage gives a benefit against the lower DC. That said, it might be better to raise the DC, maybe to 17. What do you think?

Ah, doubling the speed seems like it's prime to be abused by clever peoples. Maybe give +5 ft? (what if I cast fireball, heal my friend, then run away at 60 ft?)

I see that I need to clarify the wording to weed out spell saves. My intent is to give a free Dash to a player who is healing an ally instead of fighting, and furthermore, to give that dash only when the character is moving toward the ally.

"- On a turn when you do not harm an enemy and your action or bonus action is to restore HP or cure a condition on a creature, as you run to the creature's aid both your speed is doubled and opportunity attacks against you have disadvantage."

It will take some time to digest your new feats and cantrip changes, but I'll probably implement this list as my official list next time I start a 5e game.

Cool! That's my goal, to get this list refined and balanced for that purpose!

 

[ro]

After my first post, I realised the same issue with True Strike - it can't become fiat Advantage! So that's what blocks it being a bonus action. I'm not sure how you fix that.

It's stuck in this awkward place of way-OP as a bonus action but near-useless as an action.

Another thought, what if you could cast it as a reaction against your attacker after being hit? Or what if it replaced your opportunity attack: "Instead of making an opportunity attack, you gain advantage on your next attack roll against the target, provided that this spell hasn’t ended."

 

[Blue]

Cool list @ro. Thank you VERY MUCH for bolding the differences.

Like
These are ones I like as much or better than the PHB originals. May still have comments.

Actor

Armor Master - you're only wearing one armor at a time, this isn't power creep.

Athlete - slight concern about grapple characters with expertise breaking "bounded accuracy", especially barbarians who have advantage when raging. But that's a corner case. I think the portion about exhaustion can be written clearer, perhaps as "exhaustion affects you as if you had one less level. if you only have one level, it has no effect". (At least that's how I am reading it.)

Defensive Duelist - would swap the name, make it obvious for characters looking to do TWF.

Lucky

Martial Adept - this is potent.

Mounted Combatant - would like to add one thing - size based shoving should be based on mount size, not your own.

Shield Master - not sure I understand the change. It's already "can", not must.

War Caster


Concerns
Ones that I wouldn't run as-is. Have a problem ding what they want, too powerful, not powerful enough, etc. Also one "doesn't fix the problem I have with the PHB feat" - wouldn't want to change unless it gets addressed.

Brawler - not sure about several non-action ways to start grappling, especially with how easy it is to get athletics expertise with the new Athlete feat. And then advantage on attacks while grappling. It's fine for a normal PC, but it's too much of a good thing for grappling-focused build.

Dungeon Delver - too much for the type of build that wants this. Can become a feat tax if the DM ups the bar - havijng to DM two charactes, one with this feat and one wthout will leav me with vastly different DCs to assign.

Elemental Adept - I didn't like the UA feats that gave +1 to hit, and the same logic goes over the adding +1 hit/+1 save DC to this. All the rest I'm good with.

Healer - Why advantage with Medicine and not expertise like the Athlete feat? Let's stay consistant. Also I don't like the double speed. So a character could double speed and then dash in order to use a healing word? That's a huge speed increase. And as written can be used to move away from someoen after curing them. Also hard to fit the narrative - why is that character so much faster. I get idea, but not the implementation.

Mage Slayer - don't like the "any ability" for casting Counterspell. "Hmm, that foe is casting a fireball over there. I'm going to negate the whole thing with my CON." Prefer if it was choice of Int/Wis/Chr.

Magic Initiate - my biggest problem with this feat is that it doesn't scale, and this really doesn't address that. I'd rather see it start with the cantrips and slowly add a slot of a higher level over time. Maybe at the same rate as Eldritch Knight/Arcane Trickster. So at 3rd they get a 1st level slot, at 7th a 2nd level slot, at 13th a 3rd level slot, and at 19th a 4th level slot.

In addition, not all full caster classes get ritual casting, I'm not sure why a feat should out-do the full class.

Lastly, it seems a bit cheap to use any mental ability score instead of the ones fo the class you are emulating. I'm not sure if I really object to this, but it's enough to stick in my craw so I figured I'd suggest it.

Ritual Casting - same non-matching ability score minor concern as above.

Also want to add: you may ritually cast spells you have from other classes. Need to fine tune the wording - want warlocks to be able to ritually cast, but don't want clerics/druids to be able to ritually cast EVERY spell on the list. Also avoid racial casting, that seems a differnt type that would be odd to now ritualize.

Savage Attacker - would strongly perfer this to be "weapon damage". Otherwise it becomes a must-have and large damage bump for all rogues, and also a big boost for paladins. Those two classes will get a lot more out of it then other weapon-wielders.

Spell Sniper - I'd rather learning an attack cantrip stays with Magic Initiate. Eldritch Blast is my biggest worry, but also stealing thunder from that feat.

Not going to discuss at this time
Usually these might be their wn thread, or I just need to look at the math on the changes.

Crossbow expert
Great Weapon Master
Sharpshooter
Skulker - need to think. advantage makes sense that you don't want to make the feat worth less to it's primary target (rogue who could already have expertise in stealth). Also need to think if all this together is too good, I'm not sure.
All of the new feats

 

[ro]

Cool list @ro. Thank you VERY MUCH for bolding the differences.

Sure thing!

Like
These are ones I like as much or better than the PHB originals. May still have comments.

Actor

Armor Master - you're only wearing one armor at a time, this isn't power creep.

Athlete - slight concern about grapple characters with expertise breaking "bounded accuracy", especially barbarians who have advantage when raging. But that's a corner case. I think the portion about exhaustion can be written clearer, perhaps as "exhaustion affects you as if you had one less level. if you only have one level, it has no effect". (At least that's how I am reading it.)

I see your concern, and its effect on Brawler below. What do you think of this change?:
"- You gain proficiency in the Athletics or Acrobatics skill. If you are already proficient in both skills, you may choose one to add gain advantage on checks you make with it.
- Once per day when you would gain a level of exhaustion, you may choose not to. You regain this ability after a long rest and ingesting some food and drink."

The first requires you to get both proficiencies first, and then only advantage: this should protect against breaking Bounded Accuracy.
The second is rewording for clarity.

Defensive Duelist - would swap the name, make it obvious for characters looking to do TWF.

However, its first benefit also works with single-wielders. What might be a compromise name? Dual Duelist? Light Weapon Master?

Lucky

Martial Adept - this is potent.

Mounted Combatant - would like to add one thing - size based shoving should be based on mount size, not your own.[/QUOTE}

I think this is covered with "You can make the roll to shove using either your own, or your mount’s ability." How might this be clarified?

Shield Master - not sure I understand the change. It's already "can", not must.

This was awkward bolding. I was trying ot point out that I removed the words "that targets only you", making this useful against AoE spells rather than only applying to Acid Splash, Chain Lightning, Disintegrate, Hellish Rebuke, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Sacred Flame, and Immolation.

War Caster

Concerns
Ones that I wouldn't run as-is. Have a problem ding what they want, too powerful, not powerful enough, etc. Also one "doesn't fix the problem I have with the PHB feat" - wouldn't want to change unless it gets addressed.

Brawler - not sure about several non-action ways to start grappling, especially with how easy it is to get athletics expertise with the new Athlete feat. And then advantage on attacks while grappling. It's fine for a normal PC, but it's too much of a good thing for grappling-focused build.

This shortens the path to being a grappler to one feat from two. Do you think that both feats are good enough separately to justify a character spending +4 ASI to get them? According to [MENTION=71699]vonklaude[/MENTION]'s polling, they are very rarely taken.

Above I took your advice on Athlete and suggested changing it to advantage, and only after you take both Athletics and Acrobatics proficiencies. This should help mitigate this issue.

Dungeon Delver - too much for the type of build that wants this. Can become a feat tax if the DM ups the bar - havijng to DM two charactes, one with this feat and one wthout will leav me with vastly different DCs to assign.

Hm. Again, this is one that was almost never taken in the poll. The abilities added are mostly fluff from other feats that were almost never taken. The +1 ASI is notable, however. I personally don't think this feat is overpowered, and it was certainly underused before. What suggestions do you have for improving it? Would dropping the ASI solve the problem? (If you do drop it, that removes another feat from the options of Wis and Int characters who already have very, very few half-feats available to them.)

Elemental Adept - I didn't like the UA feats that gave +1 to hit, and the same logic goes over the adding +1 hit/+1 save DC to this. All the rest I'm good with.

This is to balance the loss of the dice reroll mechanic. The dice reroll weirdly favors spells with more, smaller dice. A straight +1 has nearly identical impact on average damage output, but removes the weirdness. Also note that +1 to attack and saves for casters is very rare compared to martials who have a plethora of magic weapons and fighting styles to help them out.

Healer - Why advantage with Medicine and not expertise like the Athlete feat? Let's stay consistant. Also I don't like the double speed. So a character could double speed and then dash in order to use a healing word? That's a huge speed increase. And as written can be used to move away from someoen after curing them. Also hard to fit the narrative - why is that character so much faster. I get idea, but not the implementation.

The Medicine advantage was to avoid making the later DC 15 check trivial. With expertise, it would need ot be DC 20, but then characters without Expertise would be at a much bigger disadvantage. So, advantage doesn't push that Bounded Accuracy. The speed increase is intended to be a free Dash action, like Rogues have, but only when the movement is toward the injured creature: so no healing and then running away. I did suggest a modification to the wording in another post to clarify that issue.

Narratively, this character is a medic who puts his whole effort into sprinting to his allies' need, heedless of danger. He is not a hit-and-run medic.

Mage Slayer - don't like the "any ability" for casting Counterspell. "Hmm, that foe is casting a fireball over there. I'm going to negate the whole thing with my CON." Prefer if it was choice of Int/Wis/Chr.

There is at least one race or class feature that allows Con casting, which is why I opened it to this. I want the Mage Slayer feat to be for martials particularly, people who may very well have low Int/Wis/Chr. My thought is that the Counterspell is part of their attack.

What about this change:

- "You can cast Counterspell once per long rest without expending a spell slot. You must be able to target the creature with an attack or spell: your spellcasting ability for Counterspell is the ability you would use to attack or cast a spell at this creature."

Magic Initiate - my biggest problem with this feat is that it doesn't scale, and this really doesn't address that. I'd rather see it start with the cantrips and slowly add a slot of a higher level over time. Maybe at the same rate as Eldritch Knight/Arcane Trickster. So at 3rd they get a 1st level slot, at 7th a 2nd level slot, at 13th a 3rd level slot, and at 19th a 4th level slot.

Would that be too powerful though? I don't want to give an abundance of extra slots: that can quickly become OP for a sorcerer, for instance. But I like the idea.

In addition, not all full caster classes get ritual casting, I'm not sure why a feat should out-do the full class.

I don't think it is a problem when applying it only to the spell chosen with the feat.

Lastly, it seems a bit cheap to use any mental ability score instead of the ones fo the class you are emulating. I'm not sure if I really object to this, but it's enough to stick in my craw so I figured I'd suggest it.

But at the same time it's odd to force a 19th level wizard to use Charisma to cast Hex. I look at it this way: through your preferred stat you have learned an unusual bit of magic in a slightly different way. It is only natural that a Warlock would approach all magic through Charisma, or a Cleric through Wisdom.

Here's a different version:

"Magic Initiate
- Choose a class: bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard. You learn two cantrips of your choice from that class’s spell list. As you increase in character level, you learn the following spells from this list:
- At 4th level, one 1st-level spell.
- At 8th level, one 2nd-level spell.
- At 12th level, one 3rd-level spell.
- At 16th level, one 4th-level spell.
- When you gain a level, you may replace any spell you know from this feat with another from the list of the same level. You may not change these spells otherwise.
- You also gain one spell slot which can be regained after a long rest. Its level matches the level of the highest spell you know from this feat, and it can be used for any spell you know or have prepared of that level or lower.
- These spells do not count against the number of spells you know or can prepare. If these spells have the ritual tag, you may cast them as rituals.
- These spells are associated with the class of your choice--e.g. if you are a Barbarian, they are Barbarian spells for you. Your spellcasting ability for these spells is Charisma, Wisdom, or Intelligence (your choice)."

Ritual Casting - same non-matching ability score minor concern as above.

Also want to add: you may ritually cast spells you have from other classes. Need to fine tune the wording - want warlocks to be able to ritually cast, but don't want clerics/druids to be able to ritually cast EVERY spell on the list. Also avoid racial casting, that seems a differnt type that would be odd to now ritualize.

This feat also may be less useful with the above suggestion for Magic Initiate. If you can just get a bunch of spells from Magic Initiate over time, should we get rid of Ritual Caster entirely? Few people take it as it is.

Savage Attacker - would strongly perfer this to be "weapon damage". Otherwise it becomes a must-have and large damage bump for all rogues, and also a big boost for paladins. Those two classes will get a lot more out of it then other weapon-wielders.

But it applies to all attacks on a turn. Is the rogue and paladin nova potential significantly greater than that of other characters?

This is inspired by the Channel Divinity of the Tempest Cleric, but it does not scale as Channel Divinity does.

Spell Sniper - I'd rather learning an attack cantrip stays with Magic Initiate. Eldritch Blast is my biggest worry, but also stealing thunder from that feat.

I'm ok with that. What should it be replaced with the make the feat attractive? How about:

Spell Sniper
Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell
You have learned techniques to enhance your attacks with certain kinds of spells, gaining the following benefits:
- Increase your Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- Your spells ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.
- When you cast a spell, your spell’s range is doubled.​

Or:

Spell Sniper
Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell
You have learned techniques to enhance your attacks with certain kinds of spells, gaining the following benefits:
- Increase your Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- Your spells ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.
- Once per short rest, when you cast a spell, it may be cast with advantage or disadvantage on the ability checks, attacks, and saving throws.​

Not going to discuss at this time
Usually these might be their wn thread, or I just need to look at the math on the changes.

Crossbow expert
Great Weapon Master
Sharpshooter
Skulker - need to think. advantage makes sense that you don't want to make the feat worth less to it's primary target (rogue who could already have expertise in stealth). Also need to think if all this together is too good, I'm not sure.
All of the new feats

Cool beans. Thank you for all your feedback! I look forward to our continued conversation!

 

[iamntbatman]

That Sniper Shot version of Sharpshooter still seems absurdly abusable. A few people in a party with that and you could cripple or outright kill any creature in the game in one round.

 

[Stalker0]

A few notes:

Athlete: an amazing feat for barbs that use frenzy, but honestly probably still in balance.

Elemental adapt: I don't think the immunity drop is needed. It's now a very solid feat with everything else.

Mage slayer: I would like to take the magicness out of this. How about this:

As a reaction, make an attack roll against a spell targeting you. If the roll beats D.C. 10+spell level, the spell ends without effect.

Once you use this ability, you must take a long rest to use it again.

It's basically counterspelk, starts a little weaker, scales stronger, and not as magical

 

[ro]

That Sniper Shot version of Sharpshooter still seems absurdly abusable. A few people in a party with that and you could cripple or outright kill any creature in the game in one round.

Yeah, I like the idea of it though. You could make a creature immune for the rest of the round after a hit:

- Sniper Shot: At the start of your turn you may expend a bonus action and forgo your movement except to stand up or fall prone. The first time you hit each target with a ranged weapon attack on this turn, your target gains one level of exhaustion rather than taking damage. A target is immune to further levels of exhaustion until the start of your next turn.